Constructive Criticism

Hutong House

(stills) computer animation and video, 2009
Yam Lau

This virtual work was made with the same 3-D imaging software used in animated films. Lau’s digital recreation of a traditional Chinese courtyard house and the lifestyle it represents “documents but also constructs a pure and imaginary China that exists outside of recent historical events,” he explains.

Regular 8 (Fountain)

chromogenic print, 2009
From the series Regular 8
Sara Angelucci

Courtesy of Wynick/Tuck gallery

“This series harkens back to the mid-’50s, when the film camera was first in the hands of middle-class families,” says Angelucci, who used Contact’s theme to think about image-making and memory. In her efforts to re-enact the past, the artist “scouted locations that could lend themselves to this time travel.”